Perhaps one of the most brutal events in all of Chicago history took
place when the city was only beginning. The terrible incident has become
known as the Fort Dearborn Massacre and memories of it still linger in
the city today.

Chicago began as nothing but empty wilderness and
open prairie. It first appeared on maps of the region in 1684 as “Chekagou”,
which literally means “wild onion”. Despite these inauspicious
beginnings, it became home to a trading post owned by Jean Baptist
Point du Sable, a French Canadian trapper in 1779. He stayed along
the Chicago River until 1800, before selling the establishment to Jean
Lalime. As American’s spread further west, there was talk of a
military garrison being established at Chicago as early as 1795. It
finally came about in 1803 under the command of Captain John Whistler.
He brought with him 40 men and they built Fort Dearborn.

The fort was a simple stockade of logs that were placed on end,
sharpened at the top and then planted firmly into the ground. The outer
stockade was a solid wall with a gated entrance. There was also a secret
underground entrance that led beneath the north wall to the river.
Inside of the fort was a parade ground, officer’s quarters, troop’s
barracks, a guard house and an ammunition magazine.

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In 1804, a man named John Kinzie settled in
the region and bought out the property of Jean Lalime. Over the next few
years, Kinzie became known as the self-appointed civilian leader of the
region, trading and dealing with the local Native American population.
He encouraged close ties with the Potawatomi Indians and even sold them
liquor, which created tension with the other white settlers. Kinzie
would figure prominently in the events that were still to come.

In 1810, Captain Whistler was replaced at Fort
Dearborn by Captain Nathan Heald, an experienced soldier, who
also brought with him Lieutenant Linus T. Helm, another officer
with experience on the frontier. Helm soon married the step-daughter of
John Kinzie. In addition to she and Heald’s wife, there were other
women now at the fort as well, all wives of the men stationed there.
Within two years, there were 12 women and 20 children at Fort Dearborn.

The first threat came to the fort with the War of
1812, a conflict that aroused unrest with the local Indian tribes,
namely the Potawatomi and the Wynadot. The effects of the war brought
many of the Indian tribes into alliance with the British for they saw
the Americans as invaders into their lands. After the British captured
the American garrison at Mackinac, Fort Dearborn was in great danger.
Orders came from General William Hull that Heald should abandon the fort
and leave the contents to the local Indians.

Unfortunately, Heald delayed in carrying out the orders and soon, the
American troops had nowhere to go. The unrest among the Indians brought
a large contingent of them to the fort and they gathered in an almost
siege-like state. The soldiers began to express concern over the growing
numbers of Indians outside and Heald realized that he was going to have
to bargain with them if the occupants of Fort Dearborn were going to
safely reach Fort Wayne.

On August 12, Heald left the fort and held council with the Indians
outside. By this time, it was estimated that 500 of them were encamped
at the fort. Heald proposed to the chiefs that he would distribute the
stores and ammunition in the fort to them in exchange for safe conduct
to Fort Wayne. The chiefs quickly agreed and conditions were set to
abandon the stockade.
Heald returned to the fort and here, was confronted by his officers.
Alarmed, they questioned the wisdom of handing out guns and ammunition
that could easily be turned against them. Heald reluctantly agreed with
them and the extra weapons and ammunition were broken apart and dumped
into an abandoned well. In addition, the stores of whiskey were dumped
into the river. Needless to say, this was observed by the Indians
outside and they too began making plans that differed from those agreed
upon with Captain Heald.

On August 14, a visitor arrived at the fort in the
person of Captain William Wells. He and 30 Miami warriors had
managed to slip past the throng outside and they appeared at the front
gates of the fort. Wells was a frontier legend among early soldiers and
settlers in the Illinois territory. Captured by Indians as a child, he
was adopted into the family of Little Turtle, the famous war chief of
the Miami. Later, Wells served as a scout under General “Mad Anthony”
Wayne and was currently serving as an Indian agent at Fort Wayne. He was
also the uncle of Captain Heald’s wife and after hearing of the
evacuation of Fort Dearborn, and knowing the hostile fervor of the local
tribes, headed straight to the fort to assist them in their escape.
Unfortunately, he had arrived too late.

Late on the evening of the 14th, another council was
held between Heald, Wells and the Indians. Heald was told that, despite
the anger over the destruction of the ammunition and the whiskey, the
garrison would still be conducted to Fort Wayne. In turn, Heald was told
that he had to abandon the fort immediately. By this time, Heald had
more than just his men and their families to think of. John Kinzie and
the other nearby settlers had also come to the fort for protection.
Throughout the night, wagons were loaded for travel and reserve
ammunition was distributed, amounting to about 25 rounds per man.
Early the next morning, the procession of soldiers, civilians, women and
children left the fort. The infantry soldiers led the way, followed by a
caravan of wagons and mounted men. The rear of the column was guarded by
a portion of the Miami who had accompanied Wells. They, along with Wells
himself, did not believe the promises made by the other tribes and they
had their faces painted for war.

The column of soldiers and settlers were escorted by
nearly 500 Potawatomi Indians. As they marched southward and into a low
range of sand hills that separated the beaches of Lake Michigan from the
prairie, the Potawatomi moved silently to the right, placing an
elevation of sand between they and the white men. The act was carried
out with such subtlety that no once noticed it as the column trudged
along the shoreline. A little further down the beach, the sand ridge
ended and the two groups would come together again.
The column traveled to the an area where 16th Street and Indiana Avenue
are now located. There was a sudden milling about of the scouts at the
front of the line and suddenly a shout came back from Captain Wells....
the Indians were attacking, he cried! A line of Potawatomi appeared over
the edge of the ridge and fired down at the column. Totally surprised,
the officers nevertheless managed to rally the men into a battle line,
but it was of little use. So many of them fell from immediate wounds
that the line collapsed. The Indians overwhelmed them with sheer
numbers, flanking the line and snatching the wagons and horses.

What followed was butchery.... officers were slain
with tomahawks.. the fort’s surgeon was cut down by gunfire and then
literally chopped into pieces ... Mrs. Heald was wounded by gunfire but
was spared when she was captured by a sympathetic chief, who spared her
life... the wife of one soldier sought so bravely and savagely that she
was hacked into pieces before she fell... John Kinzie’s niece was
spared but was narrowly wounded by a tomahawk. She was finally spirited
away by a Potawotomi named Black Partridge, a childhood friend.
In the end, cut down to less than half their original number, the
garrison surrendered under the promise of safe conduct. In all, 148
members of the column were killed, 86 of them adults and 12 of them
children.
Captain Wells, captured early in the fighting, became so enraged by the
slaughter that he managed to escape from his captors. He took a horse
and rode furiously into the Potawatomi camp, where their own women and
children were hidden. Somehow, the barrage of bullets fired at him
missed their mark, but his horse was brought down and he was captured
again. Two Indian chiefs interceded to save his life, but Pesotum, a
Potawatomi chief, stabbed Wells in the back and killed him. His heart
was then cut out and distributed to the other warriors as a token of
bravery. The next day, a half-breed Wynadot named Billy Caldwell,
gathered the remains of Wells’ mutilated body and buried it in the
sand. Wells Street, in Chicago, now bears this brave frontiersman’s
name.

In the battle, Captain Heald was wounded twice, while
his wife was wounded seven times. They were later released and a St.
Joseph Indian named Chaudonaire took them to Mackinac, where they were
turned over to the British commander there. He sent them to Detroit and
they were exchanged with the American authorities.
John Kinzie and his family were also spared. His friendship with the
Potawatomi led to his being taken away from the massacre. He returned to
Chicago a year later, but found much had changed by then. He failed to
get his business going again and took a position with the American Fur
Company, who had once been his largest competitor. In time, the Illinois
fur trade came to an end and Kinzie worked as a trader and Indian
interpreter until his death in 1828. At that point, thanks to
revisionist history books written by his descendants, Kinzie was almost
enshrined as a founder of Chicago. Through the 1800’s, history
overlooked his questionable business practices, like selling liquor to
the Indians and even the murder of a business rival. It would not be
until much later that Kinzie’s role in Chicago history would be
questioned.

The other survivors from the massacre were taken as
prisoners and some of them died soon after. Others were sold to the
British as slaves, who quickly freed them, appalled by the carnage they
had experienced. For Dearborn itself was burned to the ground by the
victorious Indians and the bodies of the massacre victims were left
where they had fallen, scattered to decay on the sand dunes of Lake
Michigan. When replacement troops arrived at the site of Fort Dearborn a
year later, they were greeted with not only the burned-out shell of the
fort, but the grinning skeletons of their predecessors and the luckless
settlers. The bodies were given proper burials and the fort was rebuilt
in 1816, only to be abandoned again in 1836, when the city would be able
to fend for itself.

As for the Indians... the Potawatomi soon began
denying any responsibility for the massacre and began blaming the
Winnebago Indians instead. The price for the massacre would be high for
those natives who had existed peacefully with the white settlers before
the war. Memories of the slaughter led to the removal of the Indians
from the region and by 1833, their forced removal from Chicago was
complete.

Not surprisingly, the horrific massacre spawned its
share of ghostly tales. For many years, the site of the fort itself was
said to be haunted by those who were killed nearby. The now vanished
fort was located at the south end of the Michigan Avenue Bridge.

The actual site of the massacre was quiet for many years, long after
Chicago grew into a sizable city. However, construction in the eartly 1980’s
unearthed a number of human bones. At first thought to be the victims of
a cholera epidemic in the 1840’s, the remains were later dated more
closely to the early 1800’s. Thanks to their location, they were
believed to be the bones of victims from the massacre. They were
reburied elsewhere but within a few weeks, people began to report the
semi-transparent figures of people dressed in pioneer clothing and
military uniforms. They were seen wandering in a field just north of
16th and while many seemed to run about haphazardly, others appeared to
move in slow motion. Many of them reportedly looked very frightened or
were screaming in silence.
Perhaps these poor victims do not rest in peace after all.....

The Massacre site can be visited today, although it
looks nothing like it did at the time of the event. Only a small metal
plaque remains today to mark the spot of the slaughter. It is posted on
the end of a building at the corner of 18th and Prairie in Chicago. In
the distance, across the railroad tracks, is bust Lakeshore Drive,
Soldier Field and the Field Museum.